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2016 St Henri Shiraz
Australian Release

2016 St Henri Shiraz

Sale price$249
/ 750 mL

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This wine is imported from Australia. State import laws allow us to ship this wine to the following states: AK, CA, DC, FL, MA, MN, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NM, NV, OR, SC, TN, WV, and WI.

Overview

St Henri is a time-honoured and alternative expression of Shiraz, and an intriguing counterpoint to Grange. It is unusual among high quality Australian red wines as it does not rely on any new oak. Proudly, a wine style that hasn’t succumbed to the dictates of fashion or commerce. St Henri is rich and plush when young, gaining soft, earthy, mocha-like characters as it ages. It is matured in old, 1,460 litre vats that allow the wine to develop, imparting minimal, if any oak character.
2016 St Henri Shiraz
2016 St Henri Shiraz Sale price$249

Awards & Accolades

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com, August 2019

"This is a much anticipated vintage for St. Henri, and it does not disappoint. The complexity of fruit here is stunning, together with a very complex and playfully fragrant, spicy edge with graphite, roasted coffee and woody spices, framing a core of very fresh blackberries, red and dark cherries and blueberries. So fresh and brimming with fruit aromas. The palate has a stunning array of deeply fleshy fruit flavors with a superb sense of length and powerful, ripe tannin, underpinning vibrant, fleshy fruit that is beautifully assembled in a refined, elegant and impressively pure mode. So long and pure. Silky and elegant. A real masterpiece, taking its place among the finest vintages like 2010, 1990 and 1971. 95% shiraz and 5% cabernet sauvignon. Drink over the next three decades."

Jeb Dunnuck, November 2019

"The St. Henri cuvée is always brought up all in neutral oak casks, and the 2016 is a blend of 95% Shiraz and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, with just 690 cases produced. This was a great vintage for South Australia, and this blockbuster sports a deep purple color as well as a dense, powerful, meaty bouquet of smoked black fruits, chocolate, bouquet garni, bay leaf, mint, and plenty of earthy minerality. Reminding me of an Hermitage from the likes of Delas Frères, it’s full-bodied and incredibly concentrated, with a stacked mid-palate and loads of ripe tannins. Backward and mostly potential at this point, it’s nevertheless a thrilling Shiraz readers should give 4-5 years of bottle age and it will knock your socks off over the coming two decades."

"A wine that can proudly grace any dinner table, in any establishment, anywhere."

– Peter Gago, Penfolds Chief Winemaker

2016 St Henri Shiraz

Taste Description

PALATE

Instant delivery, demands attention. Engulfs palate ... ever so
deftly. No intimidation.

A pure-fruited retronasal continuum from the first sniff to the
post-ingestion back-palate.
No gaps – call it saturation or density/compaction sans ‘bigness’
– apportioned correctly.

Red and dark-fruited, a compote of fresh prune and quince.
2016 + tempered shiraz + House Style + Penfolds = an assured St
Henri collectable.

VINTAGE CONDITIONS

Autumn and winter were dry and cool across South Australia. Below long-term average rainfall continued throughout spring and all through summer. The climactic conditions slightly delayed the start of the growing season in the Barossa Valley and other warmer regions. However, budburst, flowering, veraison and harvest were all earlier than is usually expected of Coonawarra.

Warm conditions prevailed in the early part of the summer allowing vines to develop healthy canopies and good bunch set. Some late rain in January and early February was a welcome relief. Temperatures in spring and summer were above the long-term average, resulting in an early harvest for shiraz. More than 80% of McLaren Vale had been harvested by mid-March.

Cool February conditions in the Adelaide Hills ensured ripening was steady and the slightly early start to vintage was a result of a mild and dry growing season. Grapes across all the main growing regions were able to ripen evenly and develop desirable flavours.

The Story of St Henri

The first vintage of St Henri – then Auldana Cellars St Henri Claret – was produced in 1888, beginning one of the most famous and enduring names in Australian wine. It was likely named after Auldana’s winemaker Léon Edmond Mazure’s son Henri or his wife, Philomine Henriette. The wine immediately enjoyed success, winning the Championship Cup for Best Claret in Australia at the Adelaide Wine Show in 1890 and then again as a joint winner in 1891. The St Henri label disappeared somewhere around the beginning of World War 1. It was revived by Senior Red Winemaker John Davoren at Penfolds in 1953 to celebrate the centenary of Auldana Cellars. The 1957 vintage is officially recognised as the first St Henri commercial release under the Penfolds name. It gained a new lease of life in the 1990s as its quality and distinctive style became better understood.